A question I’m asked routinely is, “What are the best conferences and events to go to for social media?” Assuming the point is to find out which ones I think are great for learning social media marketing, I certainly have my opinions. Granted, some of the events I’m enthusiastic about are ones at which I speak, some of those also offer me affiliate arrangements where I get a percentage of each sign-up, but I hope you know by now I don’t endorse or profit from anything I wouldn’t recommend even without those perks.

Since I’ve seemed to answer that question a few times in the last couple weeks, I thought it might help to offer up a list of upcoming social media marketing related events that I think will be strong for your learning pleasure. Where there is an affiliate relationship, I’ve given you the opportunity to sign up both with and without giving me credit.

Jason Keath has built a really strong, one-day, traveling social media marketing event in Social Fresh. I had the honor of speaking at Social Fresh Nashville and will be at Social Fresh St. Louis on Monday of next week. What Jason has done that many other conferences fail to do is bring brands to the table to tell their stories. That, coupled with social media marketing brains that are in the trenches actually doing the work, not just talking about it, and you’ve got a solid and affordable one-day experience.

It hurts my heart I can’t be at SOBCon this year. Liz Strauss’s annual blogging for business master’s-degree-in-a-weekend event is a must attend for me. Unfortunately, my mother decided to go and turn 60 and is having a party, so I got a “just this once” pass from Liz. But you should most definitely go. Liz always makes it a great learning experience for attendees and gives sponsors value beyond any other conference I’ve ever seen. Everyone wins at this one.

Web 2.0 is one of those events I’ve never been to, but spend time pilfering through hashtag filters and reaction posts from bloggers in attendance. There are always some neat nuggets to digest from the conversations around the event. Maybe one day I’ll get to go. It’s a Bay area event in early May and there are always some good name folks there from the Silicon Valley set that make it well worth the investment.

While MarketingProfs has a distinctive B2B flavor and this is a designed B2B event, it’s probably the highest concentration of B2B thinkers and doers out there AND has a high concentration of just generally smart social media marketing brains as speakers and attendees. Ann Handley is one of the smartest and classiest people in the new media world. Her events are just as good. This is another I wish I could attend this year.

Social Media Success Summit
May 4-25 (Virtual Webinars; Live or Archived)

Unlike other conferences, this one is virtual. You don’t have to leave your desk and you still get almost one-on-one interactions (and not almost if your question gets through the cue) with the likes of Guy Kawasaki, Steve Rubel, Chris Brogan and 21 other awesome speakers. (Okay, 20 and me.) The event was a huge success last year and there are already over 1,200 folks signed up. Don’t miss your chance to be a part of the live audience for this and sign up now. Even if you wait a bit, you can still get the archives, though. It’s a can’t miss deal for good knowledge from smart people.

Milwaukee is going to be host to what I think could be the underdog event of the year. UnGeeked Elite features Chris Brogan, Olivier Blanchard, Scott Stratten, Sally Hogshead, Dan Schawbel … it’s going to be impressive. It’s a new event put on by SohoBizTube and is focused on de-geekifying the hype and the jargon to make social media make sense. I’m tickled I’ve been invited to this and have a good feeling it’s going to be a “wow” event this year.

This event is new, but you should sign up and come to Philadelphia on May 25 to be a part of the first of what I’m sure will be many. The quality of speakers and unique, track delineation of this event, along with the focus to have the audience made up of brand managers, CEOs and marketing managers is going to make this a must-attend event in the social media world and fast. I am speaking at this event, but do not have an affiliate agreement with them. I do, however, have a 15 percent discount for you when you enroll. Just use the code “VIP15” when you sign up!

Chris Brogan’s Inbound Marketing Summit is in Boston in October. He’s calling his other events this year “New Marketing Experience” and I’m sure they will each be well worth the investment in time and money. (The earlier ones are April 13 in San Francisco and May 26 in Dallas. I picked Chicago to point out for geography and calendaring purposes here.) I’ve spoken at a couple of New Marketing Labs events and have always thought they were one of the best buys in the social media conference world. You get much more than social media, but still come away thinking you’re better off with blogs, Facebook and Twitter as a result, too. Chris does a great job of getting smart companies together to educate the crowd and the frenetic speaking pace crams as much info into a day or two as you can possibly imagine.

Being a part of the organization of Blog World & New Media Expo last year makes me even more passionate about telling you that you should go. I’ve had the honor of speaking at this event and programmed the Social Media Business Summit last year and I think we offered as good a program as any event out there. It’s three days of fantastic learning from innovators and creators as well as brand-side doers and even outside-the-bubble folks leveraging blogs and social media platforms for business success. And it’s in Vegas. You can’t go to this event and not have a blast.

About the Author

Jason Falls

Jason Falls is the founder of Social Media Explorer and one of the most notable and outspoken voices in the social media marketing industry. He is a noted marketing keynote speaker, author of two books and unapologetic bourbon aficionado. He can also be found at JasonFalls.com.

I will add to this list Gravity Summit’s Social Media Marketing for Business conference at the Harvard Faculty Club in Boston on Monday, September 12, 2011. http://www.gravitysummit.com/Major news groups call this the Gold Standard in Social Media.

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Beginning of the beginning is always sweet Later there will be a tired, used, abandoned, lonely, desperate and sneer Was eager to work with a person fated, then, how glad that they left Once upon a time, in a short period of time where We thought he was a man deeply in love. Later, we learned That is not love, it is just lying to yourself.army surplusbody armor

Thank you for the information. As a student, I feel that these social media events are a great way to learn from influential social media experts. It is easy to learn in the classroom but listening and watching a presentation from a leader in Web 2.0 truly puts things in perspective. It appears that there are no dates in Texas so I hope to attend the virtual webinar in May. Just another great example of the increased ability to connect through the web.

Short notice, but the Free State Social is happening just outside Kansas City (in Lawrence, KS) on April 29-30, 2010. Chris Brogan, Jeremiah Owyang, Sarah Evans, Shawna Coronado, Scott Raymond (Gowalla founder) and Ellyn Angelotti (Poynter Institute) are all speaking and leading small group discussions. Tickets are limited, but there are still a few available! http://www.freestatesocial.com

Jason – Great roundup of events. I'm excited that the Baton Rouge Social Media Club is hosting http://SocialCoastal.com and the fabulous lineup of speakers is coming together nicely ;)

Mark your calendars for September 29, 2010 in Baton Rouge, LA. The City of Baton Rouge is very supportive of new media efforts in the Gulf Coast area but there is a limit to the number of attendees this year. Plus, we have good grub!

Hi Jason – thanks for putting this together. Talk about “making sense of the noise”, there seem to be so many conferences on social media out there, that it's hard to figure out which is worth the time and no the 'same ole'.

I'd like to add one more to be on the watch for, which is LiftSummit, where the folks from Wharton Interactive Media Initiative (WIMI) and OfficeArrow.com talk about SM and Social Commerce. I know it's coming in the Fall, but the date is still TBD. Will reach out when I know more.

Jason, Good list. I'd like to put OpenCamp (http://openca.mp) on the radar. It is going to be a powerhouse event. It'll serve as an umbrella for WordCamp, DrupalCamp and JoomlaCamp as well as include a lot of discussion on SocialMedia, Podcasting and more.

I can only speak to WordCamp (Dallas) since I'm largely a WP guy but we've had awesome line-ups in the past and the nature of OpenCamp tells me were going to blow it out this year.

You should think about doing a session if you don't mind coming to Dallas in August!

Thanks so much for the awesome social media directory. As a rookie marketing & social media specialist for a B2B, http://www.accuform.com, I am always trying to talk my director into sending me to these conferences whe I happen upon them. Hopefully, with so many to choose from, this time I can get him to commit.